Vulnerability · Published Sep 15, 2025 · Assigned by Linux

CVE-2023-53178mm: fix zswap writeback race condition

High 7.8

In plain English

A high-severity security flaw in Linux from Linux. There are no confirmed reports of exploitation so far. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 0.1% (higher than 2% of all known vulnerabilities). Fixed versions are available - upgrade the affected package.

Severity (CVSS 3.1)7.8High
Exploit odds (30 days)0.1%top 98.1% of all CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo reportsCISA SSVC: none
Attack toolingNoneno public tooling known

Official description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm: fix zswap writeback race condition The zswap writeback mechanism can cause a race condition resulting in memory corruption, where a swapped out page gets swapped in with data that was written to a different page. The race unfolds like this: 1. a page with data A and swap offset X is stored in zswap 2. page A is removed off the LRU by zpool driver for writeback in zswap-shrink work, data for A is mapped by zpool driver 3. user space program faults and invalidates page entry A, offset X is considered free 4. kswapd stores page B at offset X in zswap (zswap could also be full, if so, page B would then be IOed to X, then skip step 5.) 5. entry A is replaced by B in tree->rbroot, this doesn't affect the local reference held by zswap-shrink work 6. zswap-shrink work writes back A at X, and frees zswap entry A 7. swapin of slot X brings A in memory instead of B The fix: Once the swap page cache has been allocated (case ZSWAP_SWAPCACHE_NEW), zswap-shrink work just checks that the local zswap_entry reference is still the same as the one in the tree. If it's not the same it means that it's either been invalidated or replaced, in both cases the writeback is aborted because the local entry contains stale data. Reproducer: I originally found this by running `stress` overnight to validate my work on the zswap writeback mechanism, it manifested after hours on my test machine. The key to make it happen is having zswap writebacks, so whatever setup pumps /sys/kernel/debug/zswap/written_back_pages should do the trick. In order to reproduce this faster on a vm, I setup a system with ~100M of available memory and a 500M swap file, then running `stress --vm 1 --vm-bytes 300000000 --vm-stride 4000` makes it happen in matter of tens of minutes. One can speed things up even more by swinging /sys/module/zswap/parameters/max_pool_percent up and down between, say, 20 and 1; this makes it reproduce in tens of seconds. It's crucial to set `--vm-stride` to something other than 4096 otherwise `stress` won't realize that memory has been corrupted because all pages would have the same data.

Affected packages & fixed versions

EcosystemPackageFixed inAdvisory
AlmaLinux:8bpftool4.18.0-553.83.1.el8_10ALSA-2025:19931
AlmaLinux:8kernel4.18.0-553.83.1.el8_10ALSA-2025:19931
AlmaLinux:8kernel-abi-stablelists4.18.0-553.83.1.el8_10ALSA-2025:19931
AlmaLinux:8kernel-core4.18.0-553.83.1.el8_10ALSA-2025:19931
AlmaLinux:8kernel-cross-headers4.18.0-553.83.1.el8_10ALSA-2025:19931
AlmaLinux:8kernel-debug4.18.0-553.83.1.el8_10ALSA-2025:19931
AlmaLinux:8kernel-debug-core4.18.0-553.83.1.el8_10ALSA-2025:19931
AlmaLinux:8kernel-debug-devel4.18.0-553.83.1.el8_10ALSA-2025:19931
AlmaLinux:8kernel-debug-modules4.18.0-553.83.1.el8_10ALSA-2025:19931
AlmaLinux:8kernel-debug-modules-extra4.18.0-553.83.1.el8_10ALSA-2025:19931
AlmaLinux:8kernel-devel4.18.0-553.83.1.el8_10ALSA-2025:19931
AlmaLinux:8kernel-doc4.18.0-553.83.1.el8_10ALSA-2025:19931
AlmaLinux:8kernel-headers4.18.0-553.83.1.el8_10ALSA-2025:19931
AlmaLinux:8kernel-modules4.18.0-553.83.1.el8_10ALSA-2025:19931
AlmaLinux:8kernel-modules-extra4.18.0-553.83.1.el8_10ALSA-2025:19931
AlmaLinux:8kernel-rt4.18.0-553.83.1.rt7.424.el8_10ALSA-2025:19932
AlmaLinux:8kernel-rt-core4.18.0-553.83.1.rt7.424.el8_10ALSA-2025:19932
AlmaLinux:8kernel-rt-debug4.18.0-553.83.1.rt7.424.el8_10ALSA-2025:19932
AlmaLinux:8kernel-rt-debug-core4.18.0-553.83.1.rt7.424.el8_10ALSA-2025:19932
AlmaLinux:8kernel-rt-debug-devel4.18.0-553.83.1.rt7.424.el8_10ALSA-2025:19932
AlmaLinux:8kernel-rt-debug-modules4.18.0-553.83.1.rt7.424.el8_10ALSA-2025:19932
AlmaLinux:8kernel-rt-debug-modules-extra4.18.0-553.83.1.rt7.424.el8_10ALSA-2025:19932
AlmaLinux:8kernel-rt-devel4.18.0-553.83.1.rt7.424.el8_10ALSA-2025:19932
AlmaLinux:8kernel-rt-modules4.18.0-553.83.1.rt7.424.el8_10ALSA-2025:19932
AlmaLinux:8kernel-rt-modules-extra4.18.0-553.83.1.rt7.424.el8_10ALSA-2025:19932
AlmaLinux:8kernel-tools4.18.0-553.83.1.el8_10ALSA-2025:19931
AlmaLinux:8kernel-tools-libs4.18.0-553.83.1.el8_10ALSA-2025:19931
AlmaLinux:8kernel-tools-libs-devel4.18.0-553.83.1.el8_10ALSA-2025:19931
AlmaLinux:8kernel-zfcpdump4.18.0-553.83.1.el8_10ALSA-2025:19931
AlmaLinux:8kernel-zfcpdump-core4.18.0-553.83.1.el8_10ALSA-2025:19931
AlmaLinux:8kernel-zfcpdump-devel4.18.0-553.83.1.el8_10ALSA-2025:19931
AlmaLinux:8kernel-zfcpdump-modules4.18.0-553.83.1.el8_10ALSA-2025:19931
AlmaLinux:8kernel-zfcpdump-modules-extra4.18.0-553.83.1.el8_10ALSA-2025:19931
AlmaLinux:8perf4.18.0-553.83.1.el8_10ALSA-2025:19931
AlmaLinux:8python3-perf4.18.0-553.83.1.el8_10ALSA-2025:19931
Debian:12linux6.1.37-1DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53178
Debian:13linux6.3.7-1DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53178
Debian:14linux6.3.7-1DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53178
Rocky Linux:8kernel0:4.18.0-553.83.1.el8_10RLSA-2025:19931
Rocky Linux:8kernel-rt0:4.18.0-553.83.1.rt7.424.el8_10RLSA-2025:19932
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinuxno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53178
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-allwinner-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53178
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-awsno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53178
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-aws-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53178
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-aws-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53178
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-aws-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53178
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azureno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53178
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53178
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-azure-6.11no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53178
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53178
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53178
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-fdeno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53178
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-fde-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53178
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-fde-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53178
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gcpno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53178
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gcp-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53178
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-gcp-6.11no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53178
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gcp-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53178
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gcp-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53178
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gkeno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53178
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gkeopno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53178
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-hwe-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53178
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-hwe-6.11no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53178
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-hwe-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53178
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-hwe-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53178
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-ibmno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53178
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-intelno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53178
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-intel-iot-realtimeno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53178
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-intel-iotgno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53178
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-kvmno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53178
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-lowlatencyno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53178
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-lowlatency-hwe-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53178
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-lowlatency-hwe-6.11no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53178
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-lowlatency-hwe-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53178
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-lowlatency-hwe-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53178
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-nvidiano fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53178
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-nvidia-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53178
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-nvidia-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53178
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-nvidia-tegrano fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53178
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-nvidia-tegra-igxno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53178
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oem-5.17no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53178
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.0no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53178
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.1no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53178
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.11no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53178
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53178
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.8no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53178
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oracleno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53178
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oracle-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53178
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-raspino fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53178
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-raspi-realtimeno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53178
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-realtimeno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53178
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-realtimeno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53178
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-riscvno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53178
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-riscvno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53178
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-riscv-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53178
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-riscv-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53178
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-starfive-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53178
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-starfive-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53178
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-starfive-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53178
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-xilinx-zynqmpno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53178

Affected products (as reported)

VendorProductVersions
Linux Linux 2b2811178e85553405b86e3fe78357b9b95889ce – before 2cab13f500a6333bd2b853783ac76be9e4956f8a2b2811178e85553405b86e3fe78357b9b95889ce – before ba700ea13bf0105a4773c654f7d3bef8adb64ab22b2811178e85553405b86e3fe78357b9b95889ce – before 04fc7816089c5a32c29a04ec94b998e219dfb946
Linux Linux 3.11

References